But I do agree when you say that they their ecosystem is poor. And after several years, no signs of important improvement has been made. If you're locked into one, at least give a strong one to your customer.

They can't make an improvement.
And building a strong app marketplace isn't like books where a single distributor and a handful of publisher reps can bring you hundreds of thousands of books; rather it is more like dealing with ten thousand indie publishers. And we're talking about ten thousand developers that are at most slightly interested in getting onto their platform. So it is going to take time and effort to draw those apps in.

As you said, B&N's business is selling books and they act like it.
In book selling, they are big shots; important players.
In android apps they are an afterthought that thinks it is important.

Remember, their store only runs on *their* hardware on *their* terms. The only thing they stock is what they sign a deal for. And most developers have more pressing business than spend time dealing with them for access to a 1% slice of the market.

That is why after two years their appstore is barely 8000 deep while Amazon's is well past 50,000. (And the FIRE lets you install apps from other sources.)

My position is that if their locked ecosystem can't (and won't any time soon) offer the apps the users need, then their locked ecosystem is a failure and their choices are to either open up and let the hardware shine or continue to cripple the hardware and see the hardware stay unsold in warehouses.

There is no other realistic choice.
The hardware is good but it's not *that* good.
And they may want to make their money selling content but they're not going to sell any content if they don't sell the hardware first.